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| The families of mushrooms and toadstools represented in Britain and Ireland |
Including ‘Jew’s Ear Fungus’.
Morphology. The fruit-bodies producing basidia and basidiospores; persistent; attached laterally and bracket-shaped, or fan-shaped (often resembling a human ear in shape and consistency, “hemiangiocarpous and sessile”), or more or less prostrate and cushion-shaped or contorted-folded and brain-like with the hymenium external, or flattened and more or less appressed to the substrate or encrusting, with the hymenium on the outside; medium sized to large; 3–10 cm across; waxy to gelatinous and somewhat translucent when moist; brightly pigmented to not brightly pigmented; light brown, or purplish brown (brown or liver-coloured). The hymenium with pegs or spinose, or smooth, or irregularly folded, ridged or wrinkled. The basidia ‘modified’; transversely septate (cylindrical, the 1–4 cells each bearing a sterigma and a basidiospore). The basidiospores with germination involving repetition and budding; ballistosporic.
The hyphal walls lamellate, with a thin, electron-dense outer layer and a relatively thick, electron-transparent inner layer. The hyphae with dolipore septa.
Ecology. Saprophytic, or parasitic and saprophytic; when parasitic, on vascular plants. The fruit-bodies on dead wood, or on living wood. Associated with broad-leaved trees. The fruit-bodies on trunks and branches of living trees and on dead trees and fallen logs. A. auricula-judae occurs mainly on Sambucus and Ulmus. Found in broad-leaved woodland and in mixed woodland.
Representation in Britain and Ireland. Auricularia.
World representation. 21 species; genera 5. “Widespread”.
Classification. Basidiomycota; Basidiomycetes; Tremellomycetidae; Auriculariales.
Comments. Auricularia polytricha edible (and good).
Illustrations. • Auricularia auricula-judae and A. mesenterica (Berkeley). AURICULARIACEAE. 1, Auricularia mesenterica (Dicks.) Pers.; 7, Auricularia auricula-judae (Jew's Ear). CLAVARIACEAE. 2, Clavaria amethystina (Bull.) Donk.; 4, Clavulinopsis umbrinella (Sacc.) Corner. CLAVULINACEAE. 3, Clavulina rugosa (Bull.) J. Schrot. RAMARIACEAE. 5, Ramaria stricta (Pers.) Quél.). HELOTIACEAE. 6, Ascocoryne sarcoides (Jacq.) Groves & Wilson. DACRYMYCETACEAE. 8, Dacrymyces stillatus Nees. From Berkeley (1860).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2008 onwards. The families of mushrooms and toadstools represented in Britain and Ireland. Version: 5th August 2019. delta-intkey.com’.
